


Have Their Ribs and Eat Them Too

by fouronforeplay



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 20:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2361557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fouronforeplay/pseuds/fouronforeplay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for opusculasedfera's prompt "Gagner/Tavares, ribfest," for Getting In on the Offseason 2014. Hope it's at least close to what you wanted!</p><p>So this is the first fic I've finished in ages, and I'm not sure I should even count the only other one that's published. Leave it to hockey to get me to actually write something myself instead of just being everyone's beta and poking other people until they write stuff for me. Hopefully this exchange will get the ball rolling for me to finish some of my massive WIPs.</p><p>Huge thanks to my girls andromeda_reinvented, penguinutopia, hollyandvice, and hedgerose (whose fault it is that this is entirely a framing device) for cheerleading and beta-reading, and to calclutterfuck for being an extra set of eyes. Any remaining mistakes are mine.</p><p>The publication referenced is fictional, and any resemblance to a real-world publication is unintentional. The fic title is also the title of the article.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Have Their Ribs and Eat Them Too

**Author's Note:**

  * For [opusculasedfera](https://archiveofourown.org/users/opusculasedfera/gifts).



> Written for opusculasedfera's prompt "Gagner/Tavares, ribfest," for Getting In on the Offseason 2014. Hope it's at least close to what you wanted!
> 
> So this is the first fic I've finished in ages, and I'm not sure I should even count the only other one that's published. Leave it to hockey to get me to actually write something myself instead of just being everyone's beta and poking other people until they write stuff for me. Hopefully this exchange will get the ball rolling for me to finish some of my massive WIPs.
> 
> Huge thanks to my girls andromeda_reinvented, penguinutopia, hollyandvice, and hedgerose (whose fault it is that this is entirely a framing device) for cheerleading and beta-reading, and to calclutterfuck for being an extra set of eyes. Any remaining mistakes are mine.
> 
> The publication referenced is fictional, and any resemblance to a real-world publication is unintentional. The fic title is also the title of the article.

_The Metropolist visited the home of the winner and runner-up of this year's Hudson Valley Ribfest to talk food, life, and family._

For John Tavares and Sam Gagner, cooking has been a mutual passion that brought them together, but this summer it threatened to tear them apart. 

"Not really," Gagner, 26, laughed when the pair sat down in August to discuss their participation in the Hudson Valley Ribfest. "Maybe because this one's gotta be so competitive all the time," he said, gesturing at Tavares. "I don't think there was really ever any danger there."

Tavares, 24, rolled his eyes. "And who here has a top-secret recipe book in a fireproof box with a lock? Because I know it's not me."

Tavares, acclaimed executive chef of Brooklyn's Tavernes, and Gagner, who heads up top-rated Oleum Catering, married last year in a small ceremony, and share their Long Island house with their dog, Patrick. They competed against each other for the first time in this year's Hudson Valley Ribfest, held July 29-31. 

"We've known each other since we were kids in Oakville, Ontario," Tavares explained. "We grew up five minutes from each other. We used to play hockey together in Sam's backyard rink in the winters, and in the summers my dad would hold potluck barbecues at our house. Sam's dad [former NHL player Dave Gagner] taught us to skate, and my dad [chef Joe Tavares] taught us to cook. It's sort of amazing that when one passion ended for both of us we were able to pick up the other."

Tavares was referring to a pair of incidents that rocked the world of junior hockey. First Gagner, playing with the Ontario Hockey League's London Knights, had a tendon severed in his right hand by a skate blade during playoffs. Despite the injury being to his non-dominant hand, Gagner, at the time projected to be an early first-round pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, was never able to recover enough dexterity to play at a professional level following surgery. Then Tavares, who was five months out from his own draft and heavily favored to go first overall, suffered a shoulder injury in a Canadian Hockey League top prospects game in January 2009. He needed surgery after surgery, and to this day hasn't regained the strength and mobility he once had.

"John was heartbroken," Gagner said. "We both were, really. I was still reeling from my own forced retirement when he got hurt, and had actually just enrolled in culinary school but deferred to go visit him and see if I could help his family out. We were eighteen, nineteen, and I remember both of us feeling like it was the end of the world that we couldn't be in the NHL. But I had cooking, and when John was going through physical therapy I called him almost every day to tell him about what I was doing at CIA [the Culinary Institute of America]. So really it wasn't surprising at all when I was just about to graduate and suddenly John's making noise about coming to school there too."

Gagner went on to work in several restaurants in Edmonton, Alberta, while Tavares went through culinary school and then worked in several New York institutions, including a stint as a sous chef at Union Square Café, before competing on Bravo's _Top Chef_ as their youngest-ever contestant, finishing third.

"After _Top Chef_ , I started thinking more about what's really important to me. I've always been so competitive–"

Here Gagner interjected. "Oh, you think?"

"But winning isn't everything. I lost hockey, I lost Top Chef, but Sam's been with me through it all. I realized I never wanted to lose him, as a friend or otherwise. So that's when I started trying harder to get him to move closer to me. I'd tried for years to get him to move to Long Island, first just to be here and later to be my Chef de Cuisine at Tavernes, but he was so stubborn about how he needed to do his own thing. I'm just glad everything worked out like it did," said Tavares, taking Gagner's hand in his. 

After the restaurant he worked at in Edmonton closed, Gagner had a tough choice to make. 

"I had solid job offers from some great places in Phoenix and Tampa Bay, but then I had John bugging me to come to New York, where I had no real offers. Then John happened to mention his buddy was looking to sell a bunch of catering equipment, and I thought, 'What the hell. Let's do this.' And so I moved in with John and started Oleum." 

A year later, the pair are married, have adopted a golden retriever-lab mix ("He's dumb as bricks," Gagner intones, while Tavares insists that's not true), play rec league hockey together twice a week in the winter, and have become each other's culinary competition. 

"My recipes are top-secret for a reason," Gagner said with the utmost seriousness. "It's because they're the best." He's not wrong; his "Eight-Alarm Onetime Sauce" has won every award Alberta had to give it. 

Tavares disagrees with a smile. "Sam, that sauce is different every time you make it. That's the whole point of it being a 'Onetime' sauce and you know it. I'm shocked you write anything down at all, and with the shorthand you use no one could understand it even if they could see your recipes." Gagner laughed; clearly this was an old argument that had long since lost its bite. "Besides, my barbecue sauce is clearly better. I won, didn't I?"

Gagner had to admit that he did, as the Ribfest judges put his husband's team one point ahead of Oleum for Best in Show, narrowly giving Team Tavernes the victory. The Golden Rack trophy resides on the living room mantle, opposite a smaller silver trophy awarded to Gagner and his team. "We were so close, though. I'll get you next year, just you watch."

Between the two culinary trophies sits the pair's rec league hockey championship cup, awarded at the end of the previous season. Gagner, as captain, was given custody of it. 

"We're both still involved with hockey, through the rec league and friends from the OHL, as well as my dad, who worked in the [Vancouver] Canucks' organization for a while and is an agent with Bobby Orr's group now. As a matter of fact, Kaner [Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, who played with Gagner in London] will come into Tavernes whenever he's in town and demand that John and I give him free food. Which is ridiculous, of course, because he made _how_ many millions of dollars last year? But it's nice that he and I still see each other and are still friends after all these years, even when we're in such different worlds. I'm glad we named the dog after him- they're both such dumb blonds," Gagner said with a laugh. 

In the end, Gagner and Tavares seem to count the Ribfest weekend as a victory as shared as the ones they have together in hockey. 

"I forgot how competitive Sam can get about this stuff," Tavares said. "It was like we were kids all over again and he was accusing me of cheating at faceoffs or distracting him so his steak would overcook. Not that I didn't have an equal part in that, of course, but it's good to see that we can disagree and have healthy competition and come out the other side stronger as a couple for it."

Gagner signalled his agreement with a kiss.

_Tavernes is located at 146 Bedford Avenue, at 9th Street; 212-555-9191; tavernesnyc.com. Oleum Catering can be reached for booking at 212-555-8989 or through their website at oleumcateringnyc.com._


End file.
